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Rising Ground: A Search for the Spirit of Place review – Philip Marsden’s love letter to Cornwallhttp://www.theguardian.com/books/2014/oct/12/rising-ground-review-philip-marsden-search-for-the-spirit-of-place
A thought-provoking exploration of Cornish lives and landscapes has an affinity with the work of Richard Mabey and Simon Armitage<p>There must be a moment in many a traveller’s life when there is a sudden awareness that the unexplored place – as deserving of attention as any distant destination – is home. This is what happened to Philip Marsden – author of books about Ethiopia, Russia and Armenia – after he moved, with his family, to a creek-side house in Cornwall. He fell in love with the place. He writes about it with a historian’s eye and singular sensitivity. At one point, he acknowledges that his ancient farmhouse is bordering on uninhabitable but seems to rejoice at the wisteria thrusting its way through the bedroom window and the unexpected bramble that has invited itself into the sitting room. It is only when his son, Arthur, announces that “there is like a big mouse in the hall” that he sees the feral has gone too far. Yet, at the same time, he struggles with an unease about the overhaul the house is about to receive at his hands. He wonders what the people who built it would feel about “our planned ceiling lights”. Happily, he does not listen to his doubts. Houses, after all – like languages – change. And besides – one cannot help but speculate – the people who built the house might have loved the electricity and thoroughly have approved of the ceiling lights.</p><p>In a wider context, Marsden’s respect for the past is the book’s great strength. The book is, above all, a tribute to Cornwall and its enduring beauty. It is, in part, a tour of tors and a reminder that stonescapes outlive literary wayfarers. Marsden heads westward towards Land’s End, taking in Bodmin, Tintagel and the strange white landscape of china-clay country. His book has an affinity with the work of <a href="http://www.theguardian.com/books/jonathan-raban" title="">Jonathan Raban</a>, <a href="http://www.theguardian.com/books/richard-mabey" title="">Richard Mabey</a> and <a href="http://www.theguardian.com/books/simonarmitage" title="">Simon Armitage</a> – each writer able, in his different way, to take on landscape as close work. And there is no self-serving romanticism here. Marsden writes in an elegant, retiring way (he could actually get away with keeping himself on a slightly looser rein and include more personal detail). HBut that is not his way: he is more likely to introduce someone else warmly than to show his own hand or heart.</p> <a href="http://www.theguardian.com/books/2014/oct/12/rising-ground-review-philip-marsden-search-for-the-spirit-of-place">Continue reading...</a>Travel writingHistoryScience and natureHouse and gardenBooksCultureCornwallUnited KingdomTravelSun, 12 Oct 2014 08:00:08 GMThttp://www.theguardian.com/books/2014/oct/12/rising-ground-review-philip-marsden-search-for-the-spirit-of-placePhotograph: Alamy/AlamyThe coast near Penwith: ‘Philip Marsden’s book is, above all, a tribute to Cornwall and its enduring beauty.’ Photograph: AlamyPhotograph: Alamy/AlamyThe coast near Penwith: ‘Philip Marsden’s book is, above all, a tribute to Cornwall and its enduring beauty.’ Photograph: AlamyKate Kellaway2014-10-12T08:00:08ZTen of the best seafood places in Devon and Dorsethttp://www.theguardian.com/travel/2010/jul/13/best-seafood-in-devon
Leading chef and restaurateur Mitch Tonks chooses his favourite cafes, pubs and shacks to tuck into the fruits of the sea<p>A new discovery for me, and boy is this tiny place good. Run by fisherman Rob Simmonds and his wife Amanda, they serve the best crab sandwich I've ever tasted. They cook the crabs in the morning, pick them by hand and sell them through the day. A real gem in the back streets of town, just by the slipway.</p> <a href="http://www.theguardian.com/travel/2010/jul/13/best-seafood-in-devon">Continue reading...</a>DevonDorsetTravelUnited KingdomFood and drinkFood & drinkTravel writingEnglandTue, 13 Jul 2010 12:17:00 GMThttp://www.theguardian.com/travel/2010/jul/13/best-seafood-in-devonPRBrixham-based Mitch Tonks is an authority on all things fishyPRSpider crabMitch Tonks2010-07-13T12:17:00ZRory MacLean reviews: Three Ways to Capsize a Boathttp://www.theguardian.com/travel/2009/jun/12/three-ways-capsize-boat-greece
Chris Stewart's madcap nautical adventures are 'a charming and lyrical read, awash with the joy of discovery', says Rory MacLean.<br /><br />Read Chris Stewart's <a href="http://www.guardian.co.uk/travel/2009/jun/13/sailing-holidays-advice">five tips to start sailing</a><p>Chris Stewart did not follow a predictable career path to literary success. He was the original drummer in Genesis (he played on the first album), worked in a circus, learnt to shear sheep and went to China to write a Rough Guide. His three hilarious books about life on his Spanish farm – Driving Over Lemons, A Parrot in the Pepper Tree and The Almond Blossom Appreciation Society – have sold more than a million copies in the UK alone. But before he started to farm – and write about it – he messed about in boats.</p><p>His nautical life started on the Wandsworth Road. A friend offered him a summer job skippering a yacht in the Greek islands. Even though he knew nothing about boats, he seized the opportunity. To learn how to sail he pottered about off Littlehampton with a man from the DHSS who fancied his girlfriend. After knocking him overboard (he claims not because of the girl), Stewart enrolled at the Isle of Wight Sailing School where the bug – or sea slug – bit him.</p> <a href="http://www.theguardian.com/travel/2009/jun/12/three-ways-capsize-boat-greece">Continue reading...</a>Greek IslandsSailing holidaysGreeceNorwayIcelandUnited KingdomTravelTravel writingFri, 12 Jun 2009 09:30:00 GMThttp://www.theguardian.com/travel/2009/jun/12/three-ways-capsize-boat-greeceLee Frost/Robert Harding World Imagery/CorbisChris Stewart recalls an Aegean summer spent sailing from harbour to harbour. Photograph: Lee Frost/Robert Harding World Imagery/CorbisLee Frost/Robert Harding World Imagery/CorbisSail boats in Greece Photograph: Lee Frost/Robert Harding World Imagery/CorbisRory Maclean2009-06-12T09:30:00ZReview: Underground England by Stephen Smithhttp://www.theguardian.com/books/2009/may/30/steophen-smith-underground-england
Josh Lacey peeps through a doorway into the hidden world beneath our feet<p>Midway through a dark tunnel on the line between London and Bristol, there is a doorway to a subterranean kingdom named Burlington - a replica of England, complete with 10km of roads, a BBC radio studio and a pub called the Rose and Crown. During an invasion or a nuclear winter, this would have provided refuge for the monarch, the prime minister and 4,000 of their closest friends. The shelter was fitted out with furniture, ashtrays and even a mural, then abandoned when some bright spark realised that &quot;not even the royal train was capable of evacuating the first family to Bath in the time allowed by a four minute warning&quot;. </p><p>Stephen Smith is a reporter for Newsnight, which is presumably why he can talk his way into holes that would be hidden from the rest of us. In his previous book, he explored the warren of drains, tubes and holes that wriggle under London. Now he has extended his explorations to the rest of England. Darting around the country, he takes us on a whirlwind tour, visiting priest holes, grottoes, caverns, slate mines, ley lines, the Millennium Seedbank, the Royston Cave and the Royal Mail tunnel in Birmingham. From his travels, he has assembled a fascinating collection of holes, mingling natural wonders with man-made homes, stores, cellars and refuges. </p> <a href="http://www.theguardian.com/books/2009/may/30/steophen-smith-underground-england">Continue reading...</a>BooksCultureUnited KingdomTravelTravel writingFri, 29 May 2009 23:01:00 GMThttp://www.theguardian.com/books/2009/may/30/steophen-smith-underground-englandJosh Lacey2009-05-29T23:01:00ZSecret Britain travel guide part one: Writer Iain Sinclair on forgotten sites with storieshttp://www.theguardian.com/travel/2009/apr/04/travel-britain-iain-sinclair-books
All around us lie overgrown and forgotten sites with fascinating stories to tell, says Iain Sinclair, who hopes this guide will inspire you to unearth them and discover your own<p>Walking around London's orbital motorway, the M25, for my book London Orbital, I found myself navigating a gulag of Victorian and Edwardian asylums. Napsbury, part of a colony of institutions between Potters Bar and Abbots Langley, was sealed off, awaiting its development package. I ducked under the perimeter fence and investigated. Those endless corridors! Charts of chemical regimes pinned to crumbling walls. The ice-crackle of broken glass underfoot. </p><p>Across the motorway, close to the spot where Margaret Thatcher cut the ribbon and declared the orbital madness open, I found another gated community, the former asylum at Shenley. I met a gardener, tending grounds that were once worked on by recovering patients, who told me that this mansion had once been the home of the architect Nicholas Hawksmoor. At the back of a small chapel, in the slipstream of the motorway, I found Hawksmoor's grave, covered over with autumn leaves, in a shallow barbecue pit. </p> <a href="http://www.theguardian.com/travel/2009/apr/04/travel-britain-iain-sinclair-books">Continue reading...</a>United KingdomTravelIain SinclairBooksLondonTravel writingLiterary tripsEnglandFri, 03 Apr 2009 23:01:00 GMThttp://www.theguardian.com/travel/2009/apr/04/travel-britain-iain-sinclair-booksEamonn McCabeIain Sinclair, writer at home in Hackney. Photograph: Eamonn McCabeEamonn McCabeIain Sinclair, writer at home in Hackney Photograph: Eamonn McCabeIain Sinclair2009-04-03T23:01:00ZReview: Adventures on the High Teas by Stuart Maconiehttp://www.theguardian.com/books/2009/mar/29/stuart-maconie-middle-england-books
Stuart Maconie fails to find Middle England, but his attempt is magnificent, says Euan Ferguson<p>Going in search of &quot;Middle England&quot; is fast becoming as much a staple of Middle England as all those spurious examples - Marmite, hedgerows, the Spitfire, Mr Pooter, old maids cycling - that these very journeys are meant to be seeking. Every five years or so, a treasured writer/broadcaster - Bryson, Paxman, Marr, now Stuart Maconie (previously the author of Pies and Prejudice) - brings out a book about it and in between a host of lesser journalists apes them.</p><p>You know the kind of thing. He (it's usually a he) will get off a train in some emblematic non-London town with the potential to exemplify this nebulous state of middling grace - Cranford (Knutsford in real life), or Tunbridge Wells, one of Austen's handsome Regency spa towns or a butt of jokes like Surbiton or Slough. They will note down the small ads in the newsagent's, visit the funny or winning or pathetic little museum and have a pint with the locals in both the revered old horse-brass place by the canal and the evil blue-alcopop Wetherspoons. The resulting travelogues have often been diverting enough, even if none can really claim to have &quot;found&quot; Middle England.</p> <a href="http://www.theguardian.com/books/2009/mar/29/stuart-maconie-middle-england-books">Continue reading...</a>BooksCultureTravelUnited KingdomTravel writingSun, 29 Mar 2009 00:01:00 GMThttp://www.theguardian.com/books/2009/mar/29/stuart-maconie-middle-england-booksEuan Ferguson2009-03-29T00:01:00ZRory MacLean reviews: On the British Balti trailhttp://www.theguardian.com/travel/2008/sep/25/travel.india
Rory MacLean reviews Ziauddin Sardar's entertaining journey to unravel the diverse threads of the British Asian experience<p>Colin Thubron travels &quot;to people the map&quot;. His finest books have been about countries which he feared: Communist China, the former Soviet Union. By visiting them and meeting their citizens, the countries cease to be amorphous, threatening blanks on the map. He comes to understand what he fears, and so conquers it.</p><p>Most men are fearful, and the thing that most of us fear is the unknown. In this country - as in many others - this fear of the unknown has often fed racism. To many members of the white majority places like Toxteth, Oldham, even Walthamstow and New Cross are threatening blanks on the map; destinations rife with immigrants, anger, extremism and strangely spiced food. They are feared because they are not known.</p> <a href="http://www.theguardian.com/travel/2008/sep/25/travel.india">Continue reading...</a>TravelBooksIndiaPakistanUnited KingdomTravel writingThu, 25 Sep 2008 10:59:49 GMThttp://www.theguardian.com/travel/2008/sep/25/travel.indiaRobert Judges/Rex FeaturesJourney's start ... Ziauddin Sardar begins his tale in Birmingham's famous 'balti triangle'. Photograph: Robert Judges/Rex FeaturesRobert Judges/Rex FeaturesCooking curry in a balti kitchen, Birmingham. Photograph: Robert Judges/Rex FeaturesRory Maclean2008-09-25T10:59:49ZTravel news in briefhttp://www.theguardian.com/travel/2008/jun/08/travelnews.flights
<p>Go back to the golden age of British travel with the reprinted Ward Lock Red Travel Guides, first published in the 1950s. None of the information has been updated in any way, but there are fold-out maps and details on everything from places to stay to post office opening times. The hardback guides (price &pound;9.99) include London, Edinburgh, the Lake District and the Yorkshire Dales, with more to follow (<a href="http://www.wardlockredguides.co.uk">wardlockredguides.co.uk</a>). </p> <a href="http://www.theguardian.com/travel/2008/jun/08/travelnews.flights">Continue reading...</a>TravelFlightsWalking holidaysRail travelIndiaUnited KingdomTravel writingSat, 07 Jun 2008 23:01:00 GMThttp://www.theguardian.com/travel/2008/jun/08/travelnews.flightsGuardian Staff2008-06-07T23:01:00ZPrint as you gohttp://www.theguardian.com/travel/2008/mar/27/rorymaclean.travelbooks
Travel writing has found a new platform in the form of self-publishing websites. Rory MacLean finds out how the new breed of wanna-be Chatwins shape up<p><strong>Travels with Mensans</strong><br />Edited by Neil Matthews and Barry Needoff<br />Published by Lulu, &pound;7.99</p><p>Travel publishers have the willies. &quot;Why pay 10 unknowns &pound;10,000 for their first book and lose money, when I can pay a celebrity &pound;100,000 and double it?&quot; one successful, risk-adverse editor told me. Today's mania for profit has made many large publishing houses timid. Tried-and-tested formulae are favoured over new ideas. Television tie-ins rule. &quot;Something's wrong – it's an inert, cynical market,&quot; leading literary agent Clare Alexander said recently; the obsession with bestsellers is &quot;tainting&quot; the entire industry.</p> <a href="http://www.theguardian.com/travel/2008/mar/27/rorymaclean.travelbooks">Continue reading...</a>TravelUnited KingdomFranceMongoliaPublishingBooksCultureTravel writingSelf-publishingThu, 27 Mar 2008 09:59:45 GMThttp://www.theguardian.com/travel/2008/mar/27/rorymaclean.travelbooksDave G Houser/CorbisMind travel ... what can the Mensans tell you about Mongolia? Photograph: Dave G Houser/CorbisDave G Houser/CorbisRory Maclean2008-03-27T09:59:45Z20 great UK hotel discoverieshttp://www.theguardian.com/travel/2007/oct/07/escape.hotels
Every year the Good Hotel Guide scours the country for worthy new entries - places with the personal touch and bags of character. Here, editor Desmond Balmer picks his favourite additions to this year's guide<p>Every year we drop as many as 100 hotels from the Good Hotel Guide: they may have closed down, they may have changed hands, or perhaps they simply lost their way. Far from being a problem, this generates much of the excitement in preparing a new edition: allowing us space to replace them with the year's discoveries.</p><p>In the 2008 edition, out this week, we have some great finds. Steve Hill and Michele Paynton, who used to work in the City, had stayed in some dreadful pubs and thought they could do better. They bought the Lord Poulett Arms, a run-down 17th-century inn in a pretty Somerset village, and called in builders and decorators. We liked their quirky bedrooms and the buzzing bar/restaurant, and named them gastropub of the year. Meanwhile, Bob and Barbara Clift, who worked for IBM, always wanted to run a hotel and found their opportunity at Ashwick House in Dulverton, Somerset, an Edwardian country home on the edge of Exmoor. They have modernised it while maintaining the Edwardian feel.</p> <a href="http://www.theguardian.com/travel/2007/oct/07/escape.hotels">Continue reading...</a>TravelHotelsUnited KingdomWalesScotlandShort breaksTravel writingTravel guidesSun, 07 Oct 2007 16:23:47 GMThttp://www.theguardian.com/travel/2007/oct/07/escape.hotelsAtlantic views at the Gurdard's Head in western CornwallDesmond Balmer2007-10-07T16:23:47ZLondon illuminatedhttp://www.theguardian.com/travel/2007/oct/01/rorymaclean.travelbooks
Christopher Winn's historic guide to London will not fail to enhance months, even years, of gentle urban exploration, says Rory MacLean<p><strong>'I Never Knew That about London' </strong><br />by Christopher Winn<br />published by Ebury Press November 2007 &pound;9.99</p><p>I grew up under the spell of London. Illustrator Kerry Lee's evocative 1950 wall map of the city hung above our breakfast table at home in Canada. Over my corn flakes I traced the capital's high roads and medieval alleys. I studied Lee's quirky caricatures of Distinguished Residents (Henry VIII, Beefeaters), Rebels (Wat Tyler) and Popular Rogues (Dick Turpin, Claude Duval, Captain Macheath). I followed, along the Thames, the exploits of Thomas Carlyle and the Swan Uppers. Through the map I came to know – and love – the place long before I ever set foot in St Paul's or on Hungerford Bridge.</p> <a href="http://www.theguardian.com/travel/2007/oct/01/rorymaclean.travelbooks">Continue reading...</a>TravelLondonUnited KingdomTravel writingEnglandMon, 01 Oct 2007 13:03:39 GMThttp://www.theguardian.com/travel/2007/oct/01/rorymaclean.travelbooksHidden history ... Hitler planned to move Nelson's Column to Berlin after his successful invasion. Photograph: CorbisRory MacLean2007-10-01T13:03:39ZThe wilderness on our doorstephttp://www.theguardian.com/travel/2007/aug/28/rorymaclean.travelbooks
Robert Macfarlane's journey into the wildest corners of Britain and Ireland put the wonder back into familiar landscapes, says Rory MacLean<p><strong>The Wild Places </strong><br />by Robert Macfarlane. <br />Published by Granta September 6 2007, &pound;18.99</p><p>The earliest maps were &quot;story&quot; maps. Cartographers were artists who mingled knowledge with supposition, memory and fears. Their maps described both landscape and the events, which had taken place within it, enabling travellers to plot a route as well as to experience a story. Seven sisters live in this wood. Here be dragons. They were impressionistic, itinerant and sensuous creations.</p> <a href="http://www.theguardian.com/travel/2007/aug/28/rorymaclean.travelbooks">Continue reading...</a>TravelUnited KingdomTravel writingRobert MacfarlaneTue, 28 Aug 2007 13:03:00 GMThttp://www.theguardian.com/travel/2007/aug/28/rorymaclean.travelbooksKathy Collins/CorbisScotland's Rannoch Moor ... 'writers like Macfarlane are finding inspiration in their home lands'. Photograph: Kathy Collins/CorbisRory MacLean2007-08-28T13:03:00ZRory recommends: a journey through treeshttp://www.theguardian.com/travel/2007/jun/22/rorymaclean.travelbooks
In his lifetime Roger Deakin claimed to have a passion for woodland that other people have for puppies or chocolates. His tree-inspired travelogue is a magical and meditative final work, says Rory MacLean<p><strong>Wildwood: A Journey through Trees </strong><br />by Roger Deakin<br />Hamish Hamilton, June 28, &pound;20</p><p>Since the summer days of my Canadian childhood, I have loved to canoe across the dark mirror of northern lakes, paddling with an inside flick of the blade, leaving a trail of twisting whirlpools in my wake. My favourite places on earth are the wild waterways where the forest opens its arms and a silver curve of river folds the traveller into its embrace. This love of the elemental pairing of wood and water drew me to the work of Henry David Thoreau, Sigurd Olson and early Margaret Atwood, as well as to travel writers Patrick Leigh Fermor and, in 1999, Roger Deakin. </p> <a href="http://www.theguardian.com/travel/2007/jun/22/rorymaclean.travelbooks">Continue reading...</a>TravelWalesFranceSpainKazakhstanAustraliaUnited KingdomTravel writingFri, 22 Jun 2007 13:03:40 GMThttp://www.theguardian.com/travel/2007/jun/22/rorymaclean.travelbooksTree tales ... Australia's gum tree inspired Aboriginal dreaming stories of the creation of the land. Photograph: Paul A Souder/CorbisRory MacLean2007-06-22T13:03:40ZEscape's picks of the week: The guidehttp://www.theguardian.com/travel/2007/jan/07/travelbooks.uk.escape
<p>England rugby union hero Jonny Wilkinson is promoting a guide to Northumberland, which he describes as his 'adopted county', having lived there for 10 years. The Newcastle Falcons fly-half is encouraging Britons to explore the open spaces and historic sites, such as Bamburgh Castle and Holy Island, which are featured in the Northumberland Holiday and Short Breaks Guide 2007. The brochure is free from <a href="http://www.visitnorthumberland.com">Visit Northumberland</a> (0870 225 0017).</p> <a href="http://www.theguardian.com/travel/2007/jan/07/travelbooks.uk.escape">Continue reading...</a>United KingdomTravelTravel writingTravel guidesSun, 07 Jan 2007 00:06:33 GMThttp://www.theguardian.com/travel/2007/jan/07/travelbooks.uk.escapeGuardian Staff2007-01-07T00:06:33ZRichard Mabey on the natural landscape of East Angliahttp://www.theguardian.com/books/2006/jul/29/featuresreviews.guardianreview2
Nature writer Richard Mabey was always inspired by the woods and hills of the Chilterns. Then he was transplanted to the treeless flatlands of East Anglia where he was forced to reconsider his intensely personal relationship with the natural world<p>The legend of the mandrake plant - that Mediterranean easer of pain and spinner of dreams - was this. Its roots resembled a tiny human, a manikin, and were so sensitively attached to its home soil that it screamed when it was torn up. You were advised to keep your distance, and use a dog to do the pulling.</p><p>The story, as it turns out, was black propaganda, invented by professional herb-gatherers to keep outsiders away from their patch, but it shows much of the ambivalence attached to the idea of rootedness. As for writers who trade in landscape, they're the very epitome of mandrakes. We're supposed to flourish best in our native terroir, to achieve some kind of symbiosis with it, and to wither if we're rooted out. And our readers protect us in that relationship as if we're some kind of indigenous rarity. When, after half a lifetime in the Chiltern hills, I upped sticks and moved to the wetlands of Norfolk, I was the subject of local astonishment. Partly it was a touching concern for my welfare. How could I survive in the flatlands when I'd plainly seen the high beech-woods as a mother lode? Wouldn't I be adrift, lonely, uninspired? But partly, too, a mite of resentment that I was ditching the place I'd helped open eyes to, though no one went as far as to say I was being disloyal.</p> <a href="http://www.theguardian.com/books/2006/jul/29/featuresreviews.guardianreview2">Continue reading...</a>BooksUnited KingdomTravelCultureTravel writingFri, 28 Jul 2006 23:15:08 GMThttp://www.theguardian.com/books/2006/jul/29/featuresreviews.guardianreview2Richard Mabey2006-07-28T23:15:08ZNovel wayshttp://www.theguardian.com/travel/2004/may/18/culturaltrips.unitedkingdom.travelbooks
From the desolate Yorkshire moors to the estuaries of the Cornish coast, Sarah Dawson explores the landscapes that inspired some of the UK's finest writers<p>&quot;That's Thrushcross Grange,&quot; explained my host, Brenda Taylor, as I stared out of the car window at the impressive hall at the foot of the Pennine Way. She parked in the neighbouring driveway of Ponden House, a cosy little B&amp;B in Stanbury near Haworth, and ushered me into the hallway. &quot;Dump your bags and we'll take the dog for a walk so you can get a closer look&quot;.</p><p>I stumbled down the snowy, muddy hills trying desperately to keep up with my extremely fit 60-year-old host. In front of the grand hall Brenda leaned over conspiratorially to explain: this was the house Emily Bront&euml; renamed Thrushcross Grange in her novel Wuthering Heights. The Grange was the home of Edgar Linton, an affluent gentleman who the heroine Catherine marries for a better life, denying her true feelings for the far sexier Heathcliff until it is too late.</p> <a href="http://www.theguardian.com/travel/2004/may/18/culturaltrips.unitedkingdom.travelbooks">Continue reading...</a>Cultural tripsTravelUnited KingdomBooksCultureArt and designTravel writingLiterary tripsTue, 18 May 2004 18:01:17 GMThttp://www.theguardian.com/travel/2004/may/18/culturaltrips.unitedkingdom.travelbooksSarah Dawson2004-05-18T18:01:17ZClassic journeyshttp://www.theguardian.com/travel/2002/feb/23/unitedkingdom.culturaltrips.travelbooks
Tourists have long flocked to places made famous by writers and their novels. Author Giles Foden looks at the lasting link between literature and holidays<p><strong>Is there no nook of English ground secure <br /> From rash assault?</strong> </p><p>So wrote William Wordsworth, in a sonnet protesting the coming of the Kendal and Windermere railway, which was opened in 1847 as a means of conveying tourists to the region. The irony is, it was in part Wordsworth's own celebrity and writings that had stimulated the demand, attracting crowds of sightseers to his precious Lake District. He even wrote a Guide to the Lakes. </p> <a href="http://www.theguardian.com/travel/2002/feb/23/unitedkingdom.culturaltrips.travelbooks">Continue reading...</a>United KingdomTravelCultural tripsBooksEducationCultureArt and designTravel writingLiterary tripsSat, 23 Feb 2002 19:50:31 GMThttp://www.theguardian.com/travel/2002/feb/23/unitedkingdom.culturaltrips.travelbooksGiles Foden2002-02-23T19:50:31ZReviews: London Walking: A Handbook For Survival by Simon Pope, and Walking Literary London by Roger Tagholmhttp://www.theguardian.com/books/2001/mar/31/travel.walkingholidays
Exhaust, brickdust, endless semis: Andy Beckett samples the difficult pleasures of city walking with London Walking: A Handbook For Survival by Simon Pope, and Walking Literary London by Roger Tagholm<p><strong> London Walking: A Handbook For Survival</strong> <br /> Simon Pope <br />256pp, Ellipsis, &pound;10 <br /> <a href="http://www.booksunlimited.co.uk/bol/0,6206,1001002000093509,00.html">Buy it at a discount at BOL</a></p><p><strong> Walking Literary London: 25 Original Walks Through London's Literary Heritage</strong> <br /> Roger Tagholm <br />176pp, New Holland, &pound;9.99 <br /> <a href="http://www.booksunlimited.co.uk/bol/0,6206,1001002000352319,00.html">Buy it at a discount at BOL</a></p> <a href="http://www.theguardian.com/books/2001/mar/31/travel.walkingholidays">Continue reading...</a>Walking holidaysTravelLondonUnited KingdomBooksCultureSocietyTravel writingEnglandFri, 30 Mar 2001 23:45:00 GMThttp://www.theguardian.com/books/2001/mar/31/travel.walkingholidaysGuardian Staff2001-03-30T23:45:00ZSpecial Offahttp://www.theguardian.com/travel/2001/mar/03/unitedkingdom.walkingholidays.billbryson
This week Wales celebrated St David's Day. Bill Bryson kicks off our special issue with a ramble along the Offa's Dyke Path<p>Years ago, not long after I first arrived in Britain, I remember wandering into a bookshop and being startled to find a section devoted to walking guides. Where I came from we didn't walk much, but at least we could do it without instructions. Only gradually did I come to realise that in Britain there are two types of walking - the everyday sort with which I was familiar and a more earnest type involving sturdy boots, maps, rucksacks and, yes, walking guides. </p><p>Soon afterwards, I had my first encounter with members of this latter group. Early on a cold, wet Sunday morning, just outside Hay-on-Wye, I passed dozens of people kitting up to take to the hills. Across the way dozens more could be seen vanishing into the mists clinging to a sheer eminence called Hay Bluff. Never having seen anything like this before - people venturing out in dire weather to clamber up steep hills in the belief that there could be some pleasure in it - I watched for some minutes, and concluded that they were suffering a sort of derangement. </p> <a href="http://www.theguardian.com/travel/2001/mar/03/unitedkingdom.walkingholidays.billbryson">Continue reading...</a>United KingdomTravelWalking holidaysBooksBill BrysonCultureTravel writingSat, 03 Mar 2001 17:54:47 GMThttp://www.theguardian.com/travel/2001/mar/03/unitedkingdom.walkingholidays.billbrysonBill Bryson2001-03-03T17:54:47ZKnight moveshttp://www.theguardian.com/travel/2000/sep/30/travelbooks.unitedkingdom
With a 14th-century poem as a guidebook, Roly Smith follows Sir Gawain's fateful journey across the Staffordshire moors<p>&quot;By bluffs where boughs were bare they passed,/ Climbed by cliffs where the cold clung:/Under the high clouds, ugly mists/ Merged damply with the moors and melted on the mountains;/Each hill had a hat, a huge mantle of mist.&quot; </p><p>For anyone who knows the Staffordshire moorlands, that's a pretty accurate description of this &quot;wild west&quot; of the Peak District National Park. It is actually the description of the route taken by the &quot;comely knight&quot; Sir Gawain to his fateful rendezvous in the 14th-century alliterative poem, Sir Gawain and the Green Knight. </p> <a href="http://www.theguardian.com/travel/2000/sep/30/travelbooks.unitedkingdom">Continue reading...</a>TravelBooksUnited KingdomCultureTravel writingSat, 30 Sep 2000 17:38:04 GMThttp://www.theguardian.com/travel/2000/sep/30/travelbooks.unitedkingdomRoly Smith2000-09-30T17:38:04Z